Fact Check: National hanger shortage

[anvplayer video=”5076328″ station=”998131″]

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — You probably have a bunch of them in one of your closets at home right now. We’re talking about those wire hangers you get from the dry cleaner. Have you heard there’s a national hanger shortage? Is that for real?

News10NBC’s Nikki Rudd is checking the facts.

Maybe you’ve seen the signs that say, "Nationwide hanger shortage!"

Local dry cleaners like Julian’s on Blossom Road in Rochester are asking customers to please return their hangers.

"Trust me it sounds just as crazy to me as it does to you guys," said Dylan Julian. "It’s serious. I mean, you really can’t get hangers."

Julian is a third-generation dry cleaner. His grandpa started the business. Never in all the years Julian’s has been around has the family ever experienced a hanger shortage.

"We go through a lot of hangers," Julian said. "I mean, we do 1,000 shirts in a day so we’ll see. Hopefully, we can keep getting them back."

If you can actually find hangers to buy, they cost a lot more.

"They were 5, 6, 7 cents. I think they’re up over 10 to 15 cents a hanger now. Crazy!" Julian said.

Thankfully, customers have been answering the call and bringing those hangers back, but how long could this last?

"Could be weeks, could be months," Julian said. "I don’t want to say it could be years. I really hope that’s not the case. What are you gonna do? That’s the world we’re in nowadays."

Can you guess the cause of the hanger shortage? You’ve heard this one before: Supply chain issues.

Hangers have been a big problem because so many of them were coming from overseas, and getting them here to the states is taking a lot longer with major ports backed up.